** Maggie page review / 985 words ** Megaplayer v1.15 Falcon 030 only Music - Freeware (formerly shareware) ** MEGATRAK.GIF here ** This useful music player has not really received a lot of attention from us before for a number of reasons which I'll try to explain shortly. It was created as a play-only extension to the Mega Tracker composer program. Both of these seemed to go through a development process typical of the French Atari scene, that is that no-one was really sure whether there was still any development process going on or not until it was too late! Both Mega Tracker and Mega Player were shareware, and in both cases, it looked like the shareware registrations were defunct and that the author, Simplet of Fatal Design, had totally jumped ship and possibly moved to South America at the same time. Shame really, as initial versions of Mega Tracker gave me my first taste of (mostly) working Screamtracker multichannel modfiles, and Mega Player was a promising GEM-friendly interpretation of the theme, and potentially the most capable Atari desktop modfile player there was. As it happened, the full registered version of the Mega Player was released as freeware earlier this year, albeit without any new work on it, since the last updates in '95-96. Still, we gratefully receive what small mercies there are, and this is now the place where we come in to review it. Mega Player can be run as a program within a multi-tasking environment, or as a desktop accessory from a single-tasking TOS desktop. Mega Player has the now universal Audio CD player style interface, adapted for the GEM desktop, which can take on a more 3D look on more advanced desktops. Modfiles are loaded through the file selector and start playing immediately. You don't have to look too far for other options, as well as the standard Pause/Stop/Fast-forward type controls on the front panel, a little judicious clicking around produces a menu to control the volume and sound quality, as you can select any of the normal replay rates of the Falcon Audio, from the default or maximum 50 kHz, right down to the lower replay rates possible on the Falcon sound chip. This is potentially useful for giving some CPU time back to the Falcon if you are running Mega Player in combination with another desktop or Gem application. There is a Playlist option, where you can pre-select several modfiles to be played, and in a particular order to be played too, Mega Player acting as a digital jukebox, so you don't have to keep breaking off from the task in hand to re-select another tune. There are some cosmetic touches too, with both spectrum analyzers and and oscilloscope which can be put on screen in their own gem windows. This form of window dressing is standard to practically all desktop modfile players produced after the spartan Rape the DSP player. In terms of what it can handle, Mega Player walks all over the opposition, certainly in the world of desktop players, and even giving most full tracker/composer programs a formidable challenge. Mega Player handles standard four-channel Protracker style modfiles easily enough, it also can deal with various 8-channel formats such as early Fast Tracker and Octalyser tunes. After that, it replays Scream Tracker multi-channel tunes more or less correctly, certainly good enough for 95% of the time, and even has a courageous stab at more recent formats such as the 32 channel XM format, of which, only one other tracker is able to replay on the Falcon to any extent! (An interesting side issue is that certain XM tunes seem to be former Protracker modfiles converted to XM headers, according to the Mega Player information dialogue! There are other multi-channel formats it will play, including one unique to Mega Player, the .MGT format, which is apparently the most efficient CPU-wise for this player. One rarity which probably hasn't been implemented on ANY other Atari based tracker or modfile player, is the ability to play Protracker four channel modfiles with panning commands, a very rarely encountered effect in the normal course of things, I just happen to have one such modfile that does that! The hard work is done via a combination of CPU and DSP, and a Nemesis or Centurbo type accelerator is useful in providing that little extra "poke" for the bigger modfiles. Replay on some of the more esoteric formats is pretty good, only really beaten by Grauomf Tracker. However, Mega Player is easily accessible from a GEM environment. In general use, Mega Tracker seems to be pretty reliable. Personally, I tend to be careful with it around, as my Falcon has suffered the odd inexplicable stoppage in mid-play. This is more than likely due to an aging computer with an early series DSP which sometimes decides to please itself whether it wants to work properly or not. Accelerating via Nemesis at higher clock speeds is more likely to put some strain on the hardware as well. The other question mark is with MagiC, a lovely O/S, but not exactly a by-word for universal software compatibility. I've got a feeling that Mega Tracker OUGHT to work under MagiC, but whether it DOES work under MagiC seems to depend on the individual users configuration, and I'm just one of the unlucky ones! In conclusion, Mega Tracker is a big hit on this desktop, and as it has been re-released as freeware, an absolute bargain! Pro's Con's Overall: 81%